The role of Quality Assurance in Software Development - Team Koala

Author: Michael Pascher, Teamlead Quality Assurance

In our latest blog posts, we wrote about developing our new front end, but what about the other steps that need to be taken for our customers to actually enjoy its benefits? And above all, how to prevent the opposite from happening? 

This is where our quality assurance team, QA, comes in.

QA used to be just one colleague as part of our operations team. Today, it comprises ten employees and has become an essential part of our product development. As our teams changed, so did our tasks. But first things first.

The beginning of our Quality Assurance team

First, our activities focused on carrying out acceptance tests of our partner agency’s developments — for the XXXLutz Group and all its online shops. In simple words, this means comparing our product managers' requirements with the programmed result and identifying and documenting any faults. 
However, it is not that we only look at the front end. We also have to check all systems and interfaces which come into contact with our online shops. This naturally includes the shop’s back end, the APIs, and also our PIM and ERP system. Furthermore, implementations of third-party providers such as trbo or peerius need proper vetting.

That being said, there are obviously quite a few reasons why checking it all after completing the development is not the best way to do things. We identified faults only retrospectively and we were not able to avoid them beforehand. Therefore, reworking often led to projects taking longer.

Benefits of Quality Assurance in Software Development 

We took a leap into the right direction when we began recruiting our very own developers. This enabled us to realise our own set-up as we considered best for us: A set-up where QA was part of the development team and faults could actually be avoided instead of only discovering them afterward.

With the PoC and the first project of XXXLutz Sweden, we gained valuable experience and could prepare for the tasks to come. This meant using our new front end for all other online shops and product demos.  

New product development process for our webshops 

By the end of 2019, everything has changed for the product development process. We went from working project-based to slices for our webshops. This fundamental change allowed us to make QA a vital part of all development teams and to become a regular part of them.
Additionally, an experienced automation engineer has joined our team in Barcelona in November. She will be defining new test strategies and continue to improve our current test automation. 

2020 will definitely bring about many changes and we look forward to these exciting challenges. So, stay tuned.

Career at XXXLdigital

There are many areas where we need your support, know-how and your mindset. You want to grow with us? We are currently looking for Developers, Product Owners, Test Engineers and Cloud Engineers who would like to join and support us on this journey shaping digital furniture retail!

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